hearken

verb heark·en \ ˈhär-kən \

variants: or harken

|Updated on: 3 Jun 2018

Examples: hearken in a Sentence

hearkened or harkened; hearkening play \ˈhärk-niŋ, ˈhär-kə-\ or harkening

intransitive verb

1 : listen

hearkened without much mental comment
—Theodore Dreiser

2 : to give respectful attention

the humble folk who hearkened to these evangelists
—G. M. Stephenson

transitive verb

archaic : to give heed to : hear

See hearken defined for kids

Examples of hearken in a Sentence

hearken! I hear the distant beat of the hooves of many horses

Recent Examples of hearken from the Web

With its Tribute collection, the Italian label blends a classic, round eyewear shape with the barest hint of a cat-eye, hearkening to 1960s Hollywood elegance.

— The Cut, "Buy These Sunglasses in Every Color," 24 May 2018
Reuters latest Generic Ballot polls should hearken Republicans.

— Fox News, "Conway on Trump's pro-life agenda, North Korea and trade," 23 May 2018
The specter of the virus once again transmitting in an urban setting is a chilling one, hearkening to painful memories of the massive West African Ebola outbreak that began at the end of 2013.

— helen branswell, STAT, "WHO to weigh declaration of international emergency over Ebola outbreak," 17 May 2018
The searches of Cohen’s documents hearken to the pre-dawn FBI raid of the home of Manafort’s.

— matt apuzzo, BostonGlobe.com, "Read transcript of Trump’s fiery remarks on raid of Michael Cohen’s office," 9 Apr. 2018
Also, choose fonts wisely; hard-to-read script that hearkens to the faux calligraphy trend are not the best when trying to get your message across.

— carrie goldberg, Harper's BAZAAR, "The 10 Wedding Trends That We Hope Not to See in 2018," 18 Jan. 2018
Leave it to the St. Anthony Club to be a true throwback, though: the gentleman’s-style speakeasy hearkens Ivy League clubs of old, where patrons might compare insignia rings over the notes of a Steinway.

— Condé Nast Traveler, "The St. Anthony (Luxury Collection)," 20 Oct. 2017
Particle’s ambitions hearken to the pragmatic start-up projects that Penn’s Wharton School now encourages from its business students, and to the cycling of classroom study and on-the-job field work long in fashion at Drexel University.

— jonathan takiff, Philly.com, "String Theory trades free startup work spaces for student engagement," 4 Oct. 2017
The display hearkens to a certain dark corner of World War II historiography, to books profuse in profiles of particularly sadistic SS officers.

— andrew koenig, National Review, "Eichmann Revisited," 9 Sep. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'hearken.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.